‘Pinocchio’ films featured in Moviemov Italian film fest, Feb. 1-6

‘Pinocchio’

Key film adaptations in the last 50 years of the 1883 children’s classic, “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” and recent award-winning features of contemporary Italian cinema, including a 2021 short film about the aftermath of a fire that gutted a poor Philippine community by the Tiber river, will be shown during the 10th edition of the Moviemov Italian film fest on Feb. 1-6.

The “nomadic” film fest, which has toured Southeast Asia, will go fully online via My Movies, a website dedicated to Italian cinema. All screenings are for free for 300 slots on a first-come, first-served basis.

The “Pinocchio” program will be led by Matteo Garrone’s highly acclaimed 2019 adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s classic 1883 work about a wooden boy puppet that comes to life. It will be shown on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Garrone, director of the hit 2008 crime film “Gomorrah,” makes a dark adaptation, shooting it in stunning Italian locations while shunning computer effects and choosing instead prosthetics and traditional art direction. The conceit here is that the old puppet maker Geppetto is poignantly portrayed by Oscar winner Roberto Benigni, who played Pinocchio in his own 2002 film adaptation.

‘Palazzo di Giustizia’

The rest of the “Pinocchio” movies will be shown starting today up to Feb. 4 at 11 a.m. are: the theatrical edition of the 1972 television live-action miniseries, “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” directed by Luigi Comencini and starring celebrated Italian actors Nino Manfredi, Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio de Sica; the two-part 2009 TV miniseries, “Pinocchio,” directed by Alberto Sironi and starring Bob Hoskins as Geppetto and actor-YSL Opium model Alessandro Gassman as the author Collodi; the 2012 animated feature film directed by Enzo D’ Alo; and the 2002 adaptation by Benigni. Italian actor-writer Marco Franzoso will give a “masterclass” on the intertextual dimensions of “Pinocchio” as literature and cinema on Feb. 4 at 9 p.m.A “special segment” of Moviemov is the showing on Feb. 3 at 9 p.m. of “Princess,” a 2021 short film by Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino about the aftermath of the fire last year that gutted the homes of a Filipino community living on the edge of the Tiber river in Rome.

“As in the Korean film ‘Parasite,’ the protagonists of the short film are invisible to the city,” says Moviemov organizers. While the adults pick the pieces of their broken lives from the ashes of the ruins, three little girls imagine what it’s like to have a new home.

Guest of honor is Italian actress Sara Serraiocco, who will deliver welcome remarks during the official festival opening today.

She played the assassin Baldwin in the US Starz cable network sci-fi series “Counterpart” (2017-2019), starring Oscar winner JK Simmons.
Seraiocco herself is included in one of the films in Moviemov’s official program—the engrossing 2020 “Non Odiare (Thou Shalt Not Hate),” where she plays the daughter of a neo-Nazi.

Formally opening the festival at 6 p.m. is the 2020 film bio “Volevo Nascondermi (Hidden Away).” Directed by Giorgio Diritti, the film is about Antonio Ligabue (played by Ello Germano) a revolutionary figure in modern Italian art. Germano won best actor in the 2020 Berlin film festival.

Tomorrow, “Punta Sacra” and “Padre Nostro” will be shown at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., respectively.

Francesca Mazzoleni’s “Punta Sacra (Sacred Point)” is a 2020 documentary about a poor suburban community in Rome, which is “the last patch of land at the mouth of the river Tiber.” There, an all-woman community struggles amid a lack of opportunities for the younger generations.

The 2020 movie “Padre Nostro” (Our Father) is director Claudio Noce’s semi-autobiographical tale about a boy, Valerio, whose life falls apart when his father, a tough police officer, is singled out for retaliation by terrorists in the 1970s.

‘Volevo Nascondermi’

To be shown on Feb. 3 at 4:30 p.m. is Chiara Bellosi’s “Palazzo di Giustizia (Ordinary Justice).” It is about a day in the conduct of a criminal trial from the points of view of two girls; their fathers sit on opposite sides of the courtroom.

On Feb. 4, the 2020 comedy-drama “The Predators” (2020), will be shown at 4:30 p.m. Director Pietro Castellitto’s film is about warring ideologies that pit a fascist family against an intellectual radical chic clan.

When the young intellectual Federico gets left out after his teacher joins a group that will exhume the body of his favorite philosopher Friedrich Nietzche, he is enraged and buys a bomb from a fascist gun-shop owner to destroy the German philosopher’s grave.

Scheduled for Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. is the engrossing 2020 “Non Odiare (Thou Shalt Not Hate).” Director Mauro Mancini’s movie is about a Jewish surgeon, whose parents had died during the Holocaust. One day, coming to the aid of a man who’s the victim of a hit and run, he discovers him sporting a neo-Nazi tattoo. Repelled by the sight, the doctor abandons him to his death, but later feels guilty.Seraiocco plays the neo-Nazi’s daughter, while Alessandro Gassman, the son of Vittorio Gassmann and one of today’s most in-demand Italian actors, plays the surgeon.

‘Il Mio Corpo’

Moviemov will close on Feb. 6, with the showing at 4:30 p.m. of “Il Mio Corpo (This is My Body).” A documentary by Michele Pennetta, it is about the intersecting lives of a boy scavenging in the Sicilian landfill for his father and a young Nigerian migrant who’s been taken by a local priest under his wing; he cleans the church, picks fruits and herds sheep to earn his keep. There will be an “encounter” with the cast and crew of the movies in the main program after each screening.
Moviemov is organized by the Playtown Roma Cultural Association, headed by Fabia Bettini and Gianluca Giannelli. It is supported by the Directorate General for Cinema of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage. In Manila, it is also supported by the Philippine-Italian Association and the Italian Embassy. INQFestival venue: https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/moviemov/. For more info: [email protected].